What are the three keys to moving your career forward?
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Jeffrey Pfeffer makes three excellent points about how to move your career forward in a piece for Harvard Business Review:
1: Let higher ups know what you’re accomplishing
don’t assume that anyone — your boss, your peer, or your subordinate — knows the good work you are doing. They are all probably focused on their own jobs and concerns. Do things to let them know.
2: Shape perceptions of your work, early and often
When it comes to job performance, be it in politics or in a company, perception becomes reality. This implies that you ought to manage your image and reputation as well as your actual work.
It’s important to get started early on this, because perceptions become self-sustaining. This happens, first, because people tend to assimilate new information in ways consistent with their initial perception.
3: If it’s not working, moving on is better than trying harder:
And here’s the corollary: if bosses and colleagues have formed some unfavorable impression of you in your current setting, then find another one. Many people want to “prove” that others are wrong about them — and they may be. But it’s a waste of precious time to fight that uphill battle. Why make heroic efforts to dig out of a hole when the same energy spent elsewhere could make you a star?
Jeffrey Pfeffer is the author of the excellent book Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don’t. It’s an essential read.
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